The most successful Olympian?
by Tony Riddle, Gloves Club founder
Those that have been reading the Gloves blog will know that we apply the natural laws as our filter; thereby cutting out the BS that has plagued our movement brains for far too long.
It is for this reason we apply this same filter to the Olympics.
The debate is strong; is Phelps the most successful Olympic athlete of all time or simply the most successful Olympic swimmer of all time? In our opinion - and as this is our blog that we write - we're going to decide. You, dear reader, can of course can decide for yourself.
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Michael Phelps, an undeniably
awesome athlete |
Imagine if I were to bring up a large "Minority Report" screen in front of me, where I can grab images, move them around and add overlaying screens. If I were to then create screens for the ten fundamental natural movements of man, swimming, just like running, would only be one tenth of what humans can and should achieve. To be a really, truthfully skilled all round athlete with the accolade of the most successful Olympian, surely you would have to apply a higher number of these fundamental movements? Of course this isn't to say that Phelps hasn't used other forms of exercise in his training, but his actual discipline (swimming) is only performed in the pool.
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Daley Thompson, all round
athletic prowress |
I coach fell runners and they should be recognised as being far more skilful than track or road running athletes. But why? Well to run the London Marathon, you have to just run. But to run Snowdon you need to walk, run, jump and offer quadrupedal movement. To win a race you have to be skilful at all these elements, and without that skill your success would be limited. When I look at the Olympics with this filter; for me it is the decathlon, pentathlon, steeplechase and gymnastics events that deserve the best accolades of all.
Gymnastics offers running, jumping, quadrupedal movement and throwing. As a coach I would have to develop each one of these systems individually before putting them together. The previous most successful athlete of all time was actually a gymnast and rightly so. Huge amounts of conditioning different systems has gone in to the successful gymnast and they are deserving of this title.
For me personally though our very own Daley Thompson was the greatest of all and I have nothing but admiration for his achievements; the closest I could get to even feeling that level is the
Tough Mudder competition I intend on conquering in November. This to me is going to be my Paleo games; something that I can really apply all the training too.
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